Wind blows rail cars off a bridge (NOT IN NJ)

SouthernBaron

Apr 27, 2015 at 5:04pm Edited

Winds in a storm back in the old country were so strong that a couple of train cars carrying shipping containers blew off the Huey P. Long Bridge, maybe a half mile from the River. That they were empty, that they were not over the river, and that nobody was injured makes this a bit less sensational; but even so, Nature, she's a wild one. Video caught by chance by a reporter for one of the local networks who flipped on his dash cam just in time.

http://wgno.com/2015/04/27/watch-strong-winds-knocks-over-train-in-jefferson-parish/

KarenMarlowe

Apr 27, 2015 at 5:23pm

Amazing!

krnl

Apr 27, 2015 at 6:39pm

Wow!

nan

Apr 28, 2015 at 2:05am

Amazing that no one was hurt. I'll never walk under a train trestle again the same way.

yahooyahoo

Apr 28, 2015 at 4:41am

I've driven over that bridge and I recall that the design is very unusual. The central part of the bridge is built for vehicles and the RR tracks are built on the side of the bridge, almost like a ledge. You can sort of tell in the photos.

SouthernBaron

Apr 28, 2015 at 5:09am Edited

This is a bit before the vehicle lanes join the train tracks (and actually the trains go in the center, the cars are on ledges on either side). The rail approach is so long. I grew up less than a mile from here and as a result part of my early childhood education was understanding the different physics involved in propelling a train vs. a car up a certain incline. They also widened the bridge very recently, from two lanes of 9 feet (with illogical jogs in the roadbed all over the place) to three of 12 or so on each side. It's not the bridge that I learned to drive on but that's probably for the best.
When I first got a text from my sister--"OMG a train blew off the Huey P"--I imagined it plummeting into the Mississippi. I'm almost disappointed.